#11 | 16/11/2023

View this email in your browser

This week we bring you the news that The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has announced Iberostar Group’s Gloria Fluxà as the new vice-chair and chair of its Sustainability Committee. We have written a lot about Iberostar's achievements in sustainability and have a Q&A with Dr Megan Morikawa, global sustainability office director, Iberostar Group in our features section on the website, so it will be great to see how Fluxà supports and develops the sustainability agenda on the world stage.

The atmospheric image above (thank you Harold Mendoza on Unsplash) is the story about the AHLA and Hilton pushing sustainability in hospitality at the US Senate – working to create a hospitality space that can both thrive as an industry and do its part for the planet.

We also reported that a recent survey showed a quarter of UK travellers look at what a hotel is doing in terms of sustainability when planning their trip... one to keep in mind when looking at sustainability budgets for the future...

I was chatting to my Q&A expert today about all the acronyms across both sustainability and the hotel sector and we both agreed it was like opening a can of alphabet soup. So below is a link to our Glossary for Sustainable Hotels – it's a work in progress and it's growing all the time, but well worth a quick look every now and then.

Bye for now,

Felicity Cousins
Editor, Sustainable Hotel News

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has announced Iberostar Group’s Gloria Fluxà as the new vice-chair and chair of its Sustainability Committee. Fluxà has held the role of vice-chair and chief sustainability officer at Iberostar Group since 2018.

Hilton’s vice president of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and global head of sustainability, has testified to the US Senate Subcommittee on Tourism Trade and Export Promotion. Representing Hilton and the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) at the hearing entitled “Sustainable Tourism for a Thriving Economy,” Jean Garris Hand explored how to build a sustainable travel and tourism sector while also balancing the needs of businesses, visitors, and local communities.

An InsureandGo survey of more than 2,000 holidaymakers has found 26 per cent of UK travellers look at what a hotel is doing in terms of sustainability when planning their trip. The survey looked at the importance travellers place on the sustainability practices of companies involved in their holidays.

Sustainability and specialist travel topped the agenda at the end of World Travel Market (WTM) this week in London. As part of the Sustainability Summit, moderated by WTM London’s Responsible Tourism Advisor Harold Goodwin, issues in sustainable travel were discussed including over tourism, which is back in the spotlight as travel volumes return to pre-pandemic levels.

Certification, consulting and advisory group EarthCheck has launched freight, food and laundry carbon calculators to help tourism operators understand and manage their emissions. The new tools complement the group’s existing carbon footprint calculator, which enables clients to measure their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, as well as Scope 3 emissions for waste, embodied energy and visitor and employee transport.

The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance has partnered with the British Columbia Hotel Association (BCHA) adding to its global network of hospitality associations. Collaborating with the BCHA, the Alliance aims to identify opportunities and promote sustainability tools and resources to the region which includes cities such as Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna and Abbotsford.

IHG’s voco expansion has continued with the announcement today of the signing of the brand’s 25th Americas property. Three years after launching in the region, the voco Missoula Downtown is set to open in mid-2025 and will be the brand’s first Montana property.

The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance has partnered with Just a Drop under a joint initiative called ‘Better Futures for All’. Just a Drop is an international development organisation, which has been providing access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education to communities in need over the last 25 years. It currently operates in six countries; Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Nicaragua, India, and Cambodia.

Galgorm has been recognised for its sustainability standards by Green Tourism. It became the first hotel in Northern Ireland to achieve gold in two sustainability accolades from Green Tourism which recognises the sustainable practices of the hotel across environmental initiatives, procurement processes, community projects and employee wellbeing. The hotel has also achieved the Green Meetings standard for sustainable practices specific to meetings and events.

This is a growing tree of acronyms and information for the language of sustainable hotels and we will be adding to it frequently.

💬 Check out our Q&As with industry leaders here

Unsubscribe from this newsletter.

© 2025 Sustainable Hotel News